It would be hard to imagine two more divergent personalities than heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and Hollywood comedian Stepin Fetchit. Temperamental opposites, they formed an improbable alliance ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. Although he never won an Oscar, ...

The Life and Times of Lincoln Perry By Mel Watkins Pantheon. 338 pp. $26.95 In the pathbreaking 1968 documentary "Black History, Lost, Stolen or Strayed," narrator Bill Cosby identified the ...

Although he never won an Oscar, Lincoln Perry was America's first black movie star. But for that distinction, Perry paid a heavy price -- he is best known as the character of Stepin Fetchit, a ...